SEI Hosts 12th Annual ACE Workshop for Educators

August 14, 2015 • Article

August 14, 2015—Software engineering educators gathered August 3-5 at the SEI's Pittsburgh headquarters for the 12th annual Architecture-Centric Engineering (ACE) Workshop for Educators. The SEI hosts this event to foster an ongoing exchange of ideas among educators whose curricula include the subjects of software architecture and software product lines. The SEI's Grace Lewis and Robert Nord led the workshop, which was attended by 16 educators representing institutions located in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and Thailand.

The first two days of the workshop were devoted to the courses Engineering Run-Time Malware Detection, taught by the SEI's José Morales, and DevOps and Continuous Delivery, taught by the SEI's Rick Kazman, and Aaron Volkmann. On day three, the educators participated in numerous invited talks and group sessions facilitated by SEI members. These sessions offered participants an opportunity to exchange experiences, ideas, and artifacts they've found successful for introducing software architecture and product line topics into college curricula.

"The software solutions and security crosscutting theme was highly relevant," said Nord. "Several educators offer courses for a degree in computer security where SEI knowledge can be put to use."

Lewis observed that, "The SEI is helping educators improve the understanding of software architecture concepts among the students they instruct. "This understanding will help future software engineering professionals as they enter a technological environment of ever-increasing scale and complexity."

ACE Workshop participants once again found the experience enriching. Humberto Cervantes of Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) in Mexico City noted that, "The workshop has had a very positive impact on my work." Along with fellow participants Luis Castro and Perla Velasco, also of UAM, Cervantes recently wrote an introductory book on software architecture. He and his colleagues believe it's the first Spanish-language book on the subject, and they've cited the impact of the SEI and the ACE Workshop on their work. "We want to acknowledge the people from the SEI," wrote the authors in the book's introduction, "who have warmly welcomed us for several years in the Educators Workshop, and from whom we have received a great amount of knowledge."

Steve Chenoweth of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, also lauded the workshop. "It's a unique opportunity," said Chenoweth, "getting to meet with other software architecture educators in this special SEI environment, where we get guidance from people leading the charge in industry and from the authors of the books we use."

By conducting these annual ACE workshops, the SEI is helping educators in the field of software architecture improve its pedagogy and, consequently, improve the understanding of software architecture concepts among the hundreds of students they instruct. This understanding will help future software engineering professionals as they enter a technological environment of ever-increasing scale and complexity.